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Diablo III Reaper of Souls: What We Know

Diablo III had a rocky launch, but it's only been getting better since.

Blizzard continues to listen to its fans and change the game at the core. Now at BlizzCon 2013, they're previewing all the changes that are coming to make the game live up to the Blizzard name. From removing the auction house to opening up the world, they're bringing Diablo back to its roots.

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Diablo III Changes

Overview

The new difficulty levels will be Easy, Normal, Hard, Torment, Demonic and Apocalypse.

The Crusader is coming. He's not just the paladin, although those do inspire him a great deal.

Groups and clans will be coming to multiplayer.

Diablo III is open now. Waypoints are all opened, acts are all opened. It's easier and more fun to play.

Adventure mode will be this tremendous way to make the game fun again.

Nephalem Rifts will be dynamic, exciting.

Bounties are introduced to make the world open but still have goals. It will showcase all the content that Diablo III has. They are sort of like daily quests; from killing a boss to clearing a dungeon, you'll be invited to check out the world and be rewarded for it.

Rewards will be gold and experience, but they will also be rift keystones that could open up Nephalem Rifts.

Nephalem Rifts will change up the game by being completely random. Monster densities, types, and more will be completely random. Everything can be different.

Rifts can be 1-10 levels deep, right now they are limited to 2 so they will be bigger and longer.

There will be buffs like lightning bolts or invulnerability to make it more fun to clear.

Every Rift will have a boss at the end and they will spawn right in there.

Tons of new creatures. From the Death Maiden to the Bogan, they are adding a richer bestiary than ever before to create life in the world.

There's no more unit collision with mobs, so there can be more--this way they can do cool things like scarab swarms.

Archers used to turn and run back; now they walk back slowly. These are simple changes that impact gamer experience.

Pandemonium has to feel grander but it's hard. Pandemonium is the end of the world literally.

They felt that Act I to IV were very static and enclosed, the exteriors weren't exciting.

They are now fully randomized. They will never look the same or feel the same. The flow is different each time.

Abandoned garrisons; battles frozen in time; deadly hazards; and more will be extra content to go into each zone.

Q&A

What's going on with the ladder system?Ladders are awesome to climb. They have rungs. Stay tuned.

With the closing of the auction house, what are you going to do to effect the flow of gold from the marketplace?There's a lot of gold sinks coming. Enchanting will let you reroll any stat of any item to make it better, it's a smart roll so it will make it better for you. New recipes are coming to. Transmog will not be a big gold sink, though.

No offline mode?We feel like Diablo plays best when playing with friends. This is why we have BlizzCon. It's really important to have a social connection, your characters always stored--we really wanted the game to be social. We're acting more multiplayer features.

What kind of trading model will you put in place?Coming up with new ways.

Bosses are static. Have you thought about making them patrol?In Nephalem Rifts, that's exactly what they do. You have to contend with the champion pack in addition to the boss and so on, hence the chaos.

What are your plans for PvP?PvP is something that we think about constantly and talk about a lot. But we want to have the PvE fixed and Diablo III up to snuff before we go into PvP.

You let the monsters backpedal, what about keyboard turning monsters?A joke no one got.

What are you doing about unique loot? You have a lot of items will cool effects, but stats ultimately trump them.We're narrowing the range a lot. For example, say a hammer is 1-500. At the best tier of it, it will be 300-500 so you can't get really unlucky. We're also trying to make legendaries more wacky. Witch doctor mask that has extra abilities added to Horrify, so it changes your build. Doing a lot of smart drop systems to make it better.

Side dungeons add variety to the game, but they started to disappear toward the last acts. Will there be more?We hope that by making side dungeons bounties it will be less of a grind and more variety because you will want to go to them. It was intentional to have less toward Act III and IV since people wanted to just rush to Diablo.

I've lost characters to hardcore timeouts or issues. Are there any architecture changes coming?Yeah, we're constantly looking on them. We're adding server capacity and are definitely aware of it.

Videos

Diablo III FAQ

Q: What is Reaper of Souls?Reaper of Souls™ is the upcoming expansion to Blizzard Entertainment’s epic action RPG Diablo® III—a dark and terrifying new chapter in the ongoing conflict over the mortal realm of Sanctuary.

Q: What is the story of Reaper of Souls?Following the defeat of the Prime Evil by the Nephalem in Diablo III, the mortal realm of Sanctuary should have entered an age of hope and prosperity. Instead, this event has drawn out a shadowy being of immense power, one more sinister than any demon.

Malthael, the fallen Archangel of Wisdom, vanished long ago. In Reaper of Souls, he returns as the Angel of Death and seizes the Black Soulstone, the ancient artifact containing the essence of the Prime Evil. It is now up to the Nephalem to track down Malthael and thwart his plans, a journey that will take them through the legendary city of Westmarch, across the fetid swamps of the Blood Marsh, and into the ancient halls of the Pandemonium Fortress.

Q. What new features can we expect to see in Reaper of Souls?In addition to expanding the story of Diablo III with an all-new, action-packed Act V and introducing the incorruptible Crusader class, Reaper of Souls increases the game’s level cap to 70. Players forging ahead with their existing Barbarian, Demon Hunter, Monk, Witch Doctor, and Wizard characters will benefit from an array of fearsome new spells and abilities as they advance in level.

The expansion also builds upon several key features of the Diablo franchise, with a greater emphasis on randomized environments, horrific new monsters, epic new quests, and substantial updates to the loot experience. The redesigned loot system in Reaper of Souls focuses on rewarding players with even better treasure through targeted “smart drops,” new and improved multi-level Legendary items, and a third artisan, the Mystic, who can augment an item’s power and appearance.

A new Adventure Mode has been added as well; with all Waypoints unlocked in this mode, the entire world becomes the player’s battlefield! Included in Adventure Mode are two new game features, Bounties, a randomized objective system, and Nephalem Rifts aka Loot Runs, a randomized dungeon system, provide fun and rewarding challenges for players to tackle when they’re looking for new ways to test their might. Diablo III’s Paragon progression system will also be receiving several updates for the expansion, adding even more endgame character advancement and replayability.

Q: What is Adventure Mode?In Reaper of Souls, players will be able to experience the world of Sanctuary through two different games modes: Campaign Mode and Adventure Mode. In Campaign Mode, players reprise their pivotal roles as the heroes of Sanctuary in this latest chapter of the continuing Diablo saga. All quests, cut-scenes, in-game movies, and NPC dialogue will be available and progression is intentionally linear. Campaign Mode is very similar to how Diablo III plays currently. Adventure Mode is Diablo III’s new sandbox mode, where players have the freedom to explore and play the game however they like. All waypoints are now unlocked, soplayers can go where they want, when they want. The waypoint list has been replaced with a waypoint map, a metaphor for the world that serves as a guide for Bounties and a checklist of completed gameplay options. The world is literally your battlefield! Adventure Mode also includes the aforementioned Bounties and Nephalem Rifts.

Q: Can you give us more background on Malthael?Quiet and elusive, Malthael was an enigma even to his own kind. In the years following the destruction of the Worldstone, this revered member of the Angiris Council grew increasingly distant and withdrawn, prone to long periods of isolation. Malthael’s eventual disappearance led to his transformation into the Angel of Death—a cataclysmic threat to the people of Sanctuary.

Q: What can you tell us about the new class: the Crusader? Will the Crusader be available to all players?Crusaders are righteous warriors who have been hardened through relentless, brutal combat with the foul evils plaguing eastern Sanctuary. In addition to wearing immensely heavy armor and wielding a wide range of cruel and punishing weapons, this new playable class uses battle magic to strengthen allies and weaken foes. A natural walking tank with a plethora of mid-range melee abilities, the Crusader adds power and versatility to any party of adventurers.

The Crusader class will only be available to players who purchase the expansion.

Q. Have any changes been made to the difficulty scaling or settings in Reaper of Souls?In Reaper of Souls, the game difficulty settings have been updated to Easy, Normal, Hard, Torment, Demonic and Apocalypse. Similar to the way the tiered settings and Monster Power work in Diablo III, higher difficulty levels present more powerful enemies who will potentially reward players with more powerful loot! Unlike the previous tiered difficulty system, though, players are not required to defeat the game on a lower setting in order to unlock a higher difficulty setting. These settings can be selected at any time, for both Campaign Mode and Adventure Mode, making it more convenient than ever to find the level of challenge that’s right for you!

Q. How does the new Paragon system work? Will the new Paragon system be available to all players?We’ve made three significant changes to the Paragon system:

There is no cap on Paragon levels. Players can now earn as many Paragon levels as they please.

Paragon levels are now account-wide per game type. Normal characters on an account will share a Paragon level. Similarly, all Hardcore characters on an account will share a Paragon level. Any Paragon experience you gain on your Normal or Hardcore characters will contribute to your account’s “Normal Paragon level” or “Hardcore Paragon level.”

Players will now earn Paragon Points each time they level up. These points can then be spent to boost up various stats in four different categories: Core Stats, Offensive, Defensive, and Adventure. All characters on your account have their own version of the allocated points, which can be reallocated at any time.

These changes are intended to be released as part of a pre-expansion patch and will be made available to all players.

Q: Will there be an auction house in Reaper of Souls?A: The gold and real-money auctions house will be removed from Diablo III on March 18, 2014 and will not appear in Reaper of Souls.

Q. Will players who have Reaper of Souls still be able to play with people who don’t?Currently, yes; however, Act V will not be available to players who haven’t purchased the expansion.

Q. Will there be a beta for Reaper of Souls?A: We don’t have any details to share at this time.

Q. When is Reaper of Souls going to be released?A: We aren’t ready to confirm a launch date at this time.

Q. What’s the price for Reaper of Souls? Will there be a Collector’s Edition for Reaper of Souls?A: We aren’t ready to confirm the price or the availability of a Collector’s Edition at this time.

Q. What languages will Reaper of Souls be available in?A: At release the game will be fully localized into English, Latin American Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, French, German, European Spanish, Italian, Polish, Russian, Korean, and Traditional Chinese for Windows, and English, French, and German for Mac.

Q. Will Reaper of Souls still be rated M (Mature)?A: We haven’t submitted for a rating yet. We’ll share more information about our global ratings once they are officially set.

Comments

Comment by Zakuri

on 2013-11-08T18:13:56-06:00

I can't wait for this expansion. I didn't play as much of Diablo 3 as I would have liked, and I hope to get more into it once this come out. Some of the features look great. I can't wait for the new loot system and adventure mode.

Comment by melliandre

on 2013-11-08T18:15:59-06:00

I'm excited for the adventure mode for when playing multiple characters and getting to play the sections I like the most.

Comment by Zealox

on 2013-11-08T18:19:00-06:00

The expansion is looking great - I'm going to be investing even more time in D3 when it come out!

Comment by Steamhammer

on 2013-11-08T18:21:02-06:00

Looks like this is shaping up to be what D3 should have been. :p

On a more importantant note, can we havea mini reaper as the collectors pet please!

Comment by shadyheals

Comment by GaviaO

"The new difficulty levels will be Easy, Normal, Hard, Torment, Demonic and Apocalypse."

OMG This will take so much time! :)

Comment by Leviatharan

on 2013-11-08T18:27:54-06:00

Looks like it'll be fun, I guess.

Comment by scr00chy

on 2013-11-08T18:29:56-06:00

I only played D3 for like a month but the Crusader looks so cool I think I'll buy RoS anyway

Comment by Staciea1986

on 2013-11-08T18:33:42-06:00

The new diablo 3 expension looks amazing haven't gotten to play a lot cuz I'm a wow girl but it was somewhat fun to me so can't wait to check out this PAC I'm excited ;).

Comment by Madprophet

on 2013-11-08T18:35:51-06:00

This is starting to sound more like Diablo than D3 ever did!

Comment by necrodulce

on 2013-11-08T18:38:05-06:00

Dusting off D3 :)

Comment by HighborneDestro

on 2013-11-08T18:38:37-06:00

Nice! I think I might get back to Diablo with the new xpac, pretty nice , Maltheal always looked like a badass. Not as awesome as Mini Tyreal though!

Comment by Madriel

on 2013-11-08T18:38:48-06:00

Well, I DO love dynamic events!

Comment by Alaskamagic

on 2013-11-08T18:40:00-06:00

It really sounds like they tried to address most of the problems that people had plus more. Love the map system they were talking about. Only thing I think disappointed me is they really seem to have no intention to ever make it an offline playable mode. =(